At the root of the multiple, diverse and multi-scalar challenges facing the living systems we call cities likes a single enormous knot: figuring out how to live together very differently, in light of climate crisis, pandemics, loss of biodiversity and other life-threatening conditions. Active transport has an important role to play in showing ways of living better with lower consumption, improving health and, in many contexts, social equality. This requires more attention to interdisciplinary methodologies, social movements and civil society, and the governance arrangements necessary to facilitate or at least permit significant social change.